Legitimists

For other uses, see Legitimists (disambiguation).

Royal Coat of Arms of France these arms are still used by the Royal house.

Legitimists are Royalists in France who believe that the King of France and Navarre must be chosen according to the the Salic Law. Called "Ultra-royalists" under the Bourbon Restoration, they are adherents of the elder branch of the Bourbon dynasty, overthrown in the 1830 July Revolution. Distinguished historian René Rémond analyses the legitimists as one of the three main right-wing factions in France, which was principally characterized by their counterrevolutionary opinions (they rejected the 1789 French Revolution, the Republic and everything that went with it; thus, they progressively became a far-right movement, close to traditionalist Catholics). The other two right-wing factions are, according to Rémond, the Orleanists and the Bonapartists.

The Bourbon Restoration (1814–1830)

Main article: Ultra-royalists

Following the Bourbon Restoration in 1814, a strongly restricted census suffrage sent to the Chamber of Deputies an ultra-royalist majority in 1815–1816 (la Chambre introuvable) and from 1824 to 1827. Called as such because they were "more royalist than the king" (plus royalistes que le roi), the Ultras were thus the dominant political faction under Louis XVIII (1815–1824) and Charles X (1824–1830). Opposed to the constitutional monarchy of Louis XVIII and to the limitation of the sovereign's power, they hoped to restore the Ancien Régime and cancel the rupture created by the French Revolution. By the same token, Ultras opposed all liberal, republican and democratic ideas. While Louis XVIII hoped to moderate the "restoration" of the Ancien Régime in order to make it acceptable to the population, the Ultras would never abandon the dream of an integral restoration, even after the 1830 July Revolution which set the Orleanist branch on the throne and the Ultras back to their castles in the countryside and to private life. Their importance during the Restoration was in part due to electoral laws which largely favored them (on one hand, a Peer Chamber composed of hereditary members; on the other hand, a Chamber of Deputies elected under a heavily restricted census suffrage, which permitted approximatively 100,000 Frenchmen to vote).

Louis XVIII's first ministers, who included Talleyrand, the duc de Richelieu and Decazes, were replaced by the Chambre introuvable dominated by the Ultras. Louis XVIII finally decided to dissolve this chaotic assembly, but the new liberals who replaced them were no easier to govern. After the 1820 assassination of the duc de Berry, the ultra-reactionary son of the comte d'Artois (Louis XVIII's brother and future Charles X), and a short interval during which the duc de Richelieu governed, the Ultras were back in government, headed by the comte de Villèle.

The death in 1824 of the moderate Louis XVIII emboldened the Ultra faction. In January 1825, Villèle's government passed the Anti-Sacrilege Act, which punished by death the theft of sacred vessels (with or without consecrated hosts). This "anachronistic law" (Jean-Noël Jeanneney) was in the end never applied (except on a minor point) and repealed in the first months of Louis-Philippe's reign (1830–1848). The Ultras also wanted to create courts to punish Radicals, and passed laws restricting freedom of the press.

After the 1830 July Revolution replaced the Bourbons with the more liberal Orleanist branch, the Ultras' influence declined, although it survived until at least the 16 May 1877 crisis and 1879, and even longer. They softened their views and made the restoration of the House of Bourbon their main aim. From 1830 on they became known as Legitimists.

Legitimists under the July Monarchy (1830–1848)

During the July Monarchy of 1830 to 1848, when the junior Orleanist branch held the throne, the Legitimists were politically marginalized, many withdrawing from active participation in political life. The situation was complicated before 1844 by debate as to who the legitimate king was: Charles X and his son Louis-Antoine the Dauphin had both abdicated during the 1830 Revolution in favor of Charles's young grandson, Henri comte de Chambord. Until the deaths of Charles X and his son in 1836 and 1844, respectively, many Legitimists continued to recognize each of them in turn as the rightful king, ahead of Chambord.

Legitimists under the Second Republic and the Second Empire (1848–1871)

The fall of King Louis Philippe in 1848 led to a strengthening of the Legitimist position. Although the childlessness of Chambord weakened the hand of the Legitimists, they came back into political prominence during the Second Republic. Legitimists joined with Orleanists to form the Party of Order which dominated parliament from the elections of May 1849 until Bonaparte's coup on December 2, 1851. They formed a prominent part of Odilon Barrot's ministry from December 1848 to November 1849, and in 1850 were successful in passing the Falloux Law which brought the Catholic Church back into secondary education.

Through much of this time there was discussion of "fusion" with the Orleanist Party so that the two could effect a monarchical restoration. This prospect prompted several sons of Louis Philippe to declare their support for Chambord. But fusion was not actually achieved, and after 1850 the two parties again diverged. The most committed Orleanists supported the candidacy of Louis Philippe's third son, the Prince de Joinville, for the presidency, while the legitimists largely supported allowing Bonaparte to run for a second term. In spite of this support for Bonaparte's ambitions, they opposed his scheme to restore universal suffrage in the last months of 1851, and their leaders were, like those of the Orleanists, arrested during Bonaparte's coup.

The period of the Second Empire saw the Legitimists once again cast out of active political life.

Legitimists under the Third Republic (1871–1940)

Nevertheless, the Legitimists remained a significant party within elite opinion, attracting support of the larger part of the ancien régime aristocracy. After the Siege of Paris in 1870 and the 1871 Paris Commune, the Legitimists returned for one final time to political prominence. The 8 February 1871 elections, held under universal manhood suffrage, gave the National Assembly a royalist majority supported by the provinces, while all the Parisian deputies were Republican. This time, the Legitimists were able to agree with the Orleanists on a program of fusion, largely because of the growing likelihood that the count of Chambord would die without children. The liberal Orleanists agreed to recognize Chambord as king, and the Orleanist claimant himself, Louis-Philippe Albert d'Orléans (1838–1894), count of Paris, recognized Chambord as head of the French royal house. In return, Legitimists in the Assembly agreed that, should Chambord die childless, Philippe d'Orléans would succeed him as king. Unfortunately for French monarchism, Chambord's refusal to accept the Tricolor as the flag of France and to abandon the fleur-de-lys, symbol of the Ancien régime, made restoration impossible until after his death, by which time the monarchists had long since lost their parliamentary majority due to the 16 May 1877 crisis. The death of the comte de Chambord in 1883 effectively dissolved the parti légitimiste as a political force in France.

The nationalist Action française, founded in 1899 during the Dreyfus Affair, converted to monarchism under Charles Maurras' influence. Although Maurras' integralism and support of monarchy and the Catholic Church was mostly pragmatic, the Action française remained quite popular among French reactionary elements, at least until it was condemned in 1926 by the Pope. Surprisingly, Maurras advocated women's right to vote as early as 1919 (finally instituted only in 1944 by Charles de Gaulle)--not on grounds of principle, but of political calculation. Maurras believed that just as the countryside had supported the monarchists during the 1871 elections, women would support the more conservative representatives.

Affected by sinistrisme, few conservatives explicitly called themselves right wing during the Third Republic: it became a term associated with the Counter-Revolution and anti-republican feelings, and by the 1900s was reserved for radical groups. Those Legitimists who had rallied to the Republic in 1893, after the comte de Chambord's death ten years before, still called themselves Droite constitutionnelle or républicaine (Constitutional or Republican Right). But they changed their name in 1899, and entered the 1902 elections under the name Action libérale. By 1910, the only group which openly claimed descent from the right wing gathered only nostalgic royalists, and from 1924 on the term "right wing" practically vanished from the parliamentary right's glossary.

By this time, the vast majority of legitimists had retired to their country chateaux and abandoned the political arena. Although the Action française remained an influential movement throughout the 1930s, its motivations for the restoration of monarchy were quite distinct from older Legitimists' views, and Maurras' instrumental use of Catholicism set them at odds. Thus, Legitimists participated little in the political events of the 1920s and 30s, in particular in the 6 February 1934 riots organized by far right leagues. The royalist aristocrats clearly distinguished themselves from the new ultra right, influenced by the emerging movements of fascism and nazism. However, Legitimists joined Maurras in celebrating the fall of the Third Republic after the 1940 Battle of France as a "divine surprise", and many of them entered Pétain's Vichy administration as a golden opportunity to impose a reactionary program in occupied France.

Legitimists under Vichy and after World War II (1940–Present)

Legitimists returned to prominence during Vichy France, according to historian René Rémond's studies of the right-wing factions in France. Some would also support the OAS during the Algerian War (1954–62). Marcel Lefebvre's Society of St. Pius X, founded in 1970, especially in France, shares aspects with the legitimist movement, according to Rémond.

As of 2006, some remain strongly attached to the traditionalist wing of the Catholic Church and are particularly encouraged by the theological conservatism of Pope Benedict XVI. Such Legitimists are strongly opposed to the proposed European Constitution and anything else perceived as threatening the independence of France. Among French Legitimists, there is diversity of opinion. Some tend to gather around Traditionalist Catholic places, such as the Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet church in Paris, or around far-right parties such as Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National or de Villiers' Mouvement pour la France. Many others are true democrats, wishing France could have a parliamentary monarchy like the ones of the United Kingdom or Spain. There are small but active Legitimist circles throughout France.

After Chambord's death, only the descendants of Philip V of Spain remained senior in descent to the Orléans branch of the royal dynasty. But Philip's branch had been Spanish for 170 years, having been obliged by the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht to renounce their claim to the French throne. So most French royalists believed the comte de Paris to be the legitimate pretender.

Carlism

Main article: Carlism

A remnant, known as the blancs d'Espagne ("Whites of Spain"), by repudiating Philip V's renunciation of the French throne as ultra vires and contrary to the Fundamental French monarchical law, upheld the rights of the eldest branch of the Bourbons, represented as of 1883 by the Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne. This group was initially minuscule, but began to grow larger after World War II due both to the political leftism of the Orleanist Pretender, Henri, comte de Paris, and to the active efforts of the claimants of the elder line—Jaime, Duke of Segovia, the disinherited second son of Alfonso XIII of Spain, and his son, Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz—to secure legitimist support, such that by the 1980s, the elder line had fully reclaimed for its supporters the political title of "Legitimists". This means that the current legitimist claimant is the Spanish-born Louis-Alphonse de Bourbon (Luis-Alfonso de Borbón y Martínez Bordiú), styled duc d'Anjou, whom the French legitimists consider to be the "de jure" king of France under the name Louis XX. A 1987 attempt by the Orleanist heir (and other Bourbons, none of the elder branch) to contest Louis-Alphonse's use of the Anjou title and to deny him use of the plain coat of arms of France was dismissed by the French courts in March 1989 for lack of jurisdiction (but the courts did not address the merits of the claims). The duc d'Anjou, a French citizen through his paternal grandmother, is generally recognised as the senior legitimate representative of the House of Capet.

The Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom of France

In Ancien Régime France, the laws that govern the succession are among the fundamental laws of the kingdom. They could not be ignored, nor modified, even by the king himself, since it is to these very laws to which he owes his succession. In the French monarchy, they are the foundation of any right of succession to the throne. They have developed during the early centuries of the Capetian monarchy, and were sometimes transferred to other countries linked to the dynasty.

• Heredity: the crown is inherited by primogeniture; it cannot be seized and cannot be given. This principle of heredity was intrinsic to the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties. The early Capetians copied the principle through the coronation of heirs in the lifetime of their father (the last to be so crowned was Philip II of France).
• Primogeniture: the eldest son is heir, and cadets are allowed only appanages of princely rank for their legitimate male offspring. The Capetians put an end to the Merovingian-Carolingian practice of dividing the kingdom into equal shares, a practice which weakened the kingdom. The succession devolved to the eldest son, in default of which, starting in 1316, the younger brothers, and then, in the absence of brothers, nephews and uncles, to cousins from 1328 (see below Collaterality). Through primogeniture, the Capetians slowly built up their power by marrying heiresses, ensuring their eldest son a larger demesne.
• Masculinity: the heir must be male. Until the fourteenth century, the issue was not raised, since all the kings were survived by sons. In 1316, the uncle of the late infant king John I, Philip, was chosen heir over the king’s half-sister, Joan. In 1328, the French lawyers have decided to reject the nomination of Edward III of England to the succession of France by right of his mother Isabella, daughter of Philip IV: “One cannot transmit a right that one has not”. That is to say, if a woman cannot succeed, no more can she transmit the right to succeed.
• Collaterality: in the absence of a son, the Crown devolves to the nearest male relative of the king in male line. For example: in 1316, Philip V succeeded his nephew John I, then Philip of Valois succeeded his cousin Charles IV. Similar successions occurred in 1498, 1515 and 1589. In 1589, Henry of Bourbon and Vendôme, king of Navarre (the future Henry IV), succeeded Henry III who was his male-line cousin to the 21st degree (i.e., ninth cousin once removed) according to the principle of collaterality.
• The continuity of the Crown (or immediacy of the Crown): "The King is dead; Long live the king! "; as soon as the king dies, his successor is immediately king because "the King (the State) never dies". It also means, therefore, in the minds of some royalists, that a revolution or a republic does eliminate the royal figure.
• Catholicism: the King of France is sacred according to Catholic rites; Catholicism is intrinsic to the crown of France. If this rule has long seemed obvious, it is the emergence of Protestantism and the succession of Henry IV during the Wars of Religion which made it more prominent. In 1593, Henry IV abjured Calvinism and so he can be crowned King of France February 27, 1594 in Chartres
• Legitimacy of birth: Only children born of legal marriages conforming to the canon law of the Catholic Church may be considered dynasts. The requirement of legitimate birth had been adopted in almost every Western Christian monarchy. Louis XIV decreed in his will that two of his legitimated sons, the Duke of Maine and the Count of Toulouse, would be incorporated to the throne in the event that there would be no other legitimate heir. He had no right to do this under the fundamental laws and his will was broken by the Parliament of Paris, an institution responsible for recording laws.
• The inalienability of the Crown: The crown is not the personal property of the king. The king can not appoint his successor, nor can he give up the Crown or abdicate. The Treaty of Montmartre declared that after the extinction of the male line of the House of Bourbon, agnatic descendants of St. Louis IX of France, the throne was to pass to the House of Lorraine (a non-Capetian family), provided they gave up their own estates and sovereignty. The Princes of Courtenay who descended from a junior Capetian line (from a younger son of King Louis VI) immediately protested, as did the Duke of Vendôme (descended from Henri IV's bastard son). The Chancellor of France, Séguier, advised the King he could not make Princes of the Blood by declaration, this term of the Treaty was abandoned and no letters patent issued for registration by the Parliament of Paris. Also, no prince may renounce the succession for himself or his issue and descendants, as the right of succession is inalienable.

List of Legitimist claimants to the French throne since 1792

Claimant	Portrait	Birth	Marriages	Death
Louis XVI of France 1792–1793		23 August 1754 Palace of Versailles son of Louis, Dauphin of France and Marie-Josèphe of Saxony	Marie Antoinette of Austria 16 May 1770 4 children	21 January 1793 Paris aged 38
Louis XVII of France 1793–1795		27 March 1785 Palace of Versailles son of Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette of Austria	never married	8 June 1795 Paris Temple aged 10
Louis XVIII of France 1795–1824		17 November 1755 Palace of Versailles son of Louis, Dauphin of France and Marie-Josèphe of Saxony	Marie Josephine Louise of Savoy 14 May 1771 No children	16 September 1824 Paris aged 68
Charles X of France 1824–1836		9 October 1757 Palace of Versailles son of Louis, Dauphin of France and Marie-Josèphe of Saxony	Marie Thérèse of Savoy 16 November 1773 3 children	6 November 1836 Gorizia aged 79
Louis XIX 1836–1844 (Louis-Antoine, Duke of Angoulême)		6 August 1775 Palace of Versailles son of Charles X of France and Marie Thérèse of Savoy	Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte of France June 1799 No children	3 June 1844 Gorizia aged 68
Henri V 1844–1883 (Henri, Count of Chambord)		29 September 1820 Tuileries Palace son of Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry and Caroline Ferdinande Louise of Two Sicilies	Marie Thérèse of Austria-Este November 1846 No children	24 August 1883 Gorizia aged 63

List of Legitimist-Anjou claimants to the French throne since 1883

Those Legitimists who did not follow the Orléanist line as the successors of Henri V argued that the renunciation of the French throne by Philip V of Spain, second grandson of Louis XIV, was invalid, and that in 1883 (when Chambord died childless) the throne had passed to Philip V's male heirs. This line had also lost the Spanish throne with the reign of the non-Salic heiress Isabella II, and were known as the Carlist pretenders in Spain. The French claim was reunited with the Spanish royal line when the Carlist line died out in 1936, though Alfonso XIII of Spain had by that time been dethroned by the Second Spanish Republic. The French and Spanish claims separated again at Alfonso's death, as his eldest surviving son Infante Jaime renounced his claim to the Spanish throne due to physical disability. The present French claimant is descended from Jaime, while the present King of Spain is descended from his younger brother.

Claimant	Portrait	Birth	Marriages	Death
Jean III 1883-1887 (Juan, Count of Montizón)		15 May 1822 Royal Palace of Aranjuez son of Carlos of Spain, Count of Molina and Maria Francisca of Portugal	Beatrix of Austria-Este 6 February 1847 2 children	21 November 1887 Hove aged 65
Charles XI 1887–1909 (Carlos, Duke of Madrid)		30 March 1848 Ljubljana son of Juan, Count of Montizón and Beatrix of Austria-Este	Margarita of Bourbon-Parma 4 February 1867 5 children	18 July 1909 Varese aged 61
Jacques I 1909–1931 (Jaime, Duke of Madrid)		27 June 1870 Vevey son of Carlos, Duke of Madrid and Margarita of Bourbon-Parma	never married	2 October 1931 París aged 61
Charles XII 1931–1936 (Alfonso Carlos, Duke of San Jaime)	File:AlfonsoCarlos.jpg	12 September 1849 London son of Juan, Count of Montizón and Beatrix of Austria-Este	Maria das Neves of Portugal 26 April 1871 1 child	29 September 1936 Vienna aged 87
Alphonse I 1936–1941 (King Alfonso XIII of Spain)		17 May 1886 Madrid son of Alfonso XII of Spain and Maria Christina of Austria	Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg 31 May 1906 7 children	28 February 1941 Rome aged 54
Henri VI 1941–1975 (Jaime, Duke of Segovia)		23 June 1908 Segovia son of Alfonso XIII of Spain and Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg	first marriage Emmanuelle de Dampierre 4 March 1935 Rome (divorced 6 May 1947) 2 children - - - - - - - - - - - - - - second marriage (civil only, not recognized by the Church) Charlotte Luise Auguste Tiedemann 3 August 1949 Vienna no children	20 March 1975 St. Gallen aged 67
Alphonse II 1975–1989 (Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz)		20 April 1936 Rome son of Jaime, Duke of Segovia and Emmanuelle de Dampierre	María del Carmen Martínez-Bordiú y Franco 8 March 1972 Royal Palace of El Pardo (divorced 1982/annulled 1986) 2 children	30 January 1989 Beaver Creek aged 53
Louis XX 1989–present (Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou)		25 April 1974 Madrid son of Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz and María del Carmen Martínez-Bordiú y Franco	María Margarita Vargas Santaella 5 November 2004 Caracas 3 children

Legitimist-Orleanist claimants to the French throne

In the 1870s the rival Orleanist and Legitimist claimants agreed, for the sake of the French Monarchy, to end their rivalry. The comte de Paris accepted the prior claim to the throne of the comte de Chambord. Chambord, who remained childless, in turn acknowledged that the comte de Paris would claim the right to succeed him as heir. Since then, many Legitimists have accepted the descendants of the comte de Paris as the joint Legitimist-Orleanist pretender, either by arguing that the abdication of Philip V remains in effect or by arguing that the head of the French royal house should be a Frenchman.

According to this point of view, the proper line follows that above from Louis XVI through Henri V, but follows the Orléanist line from Philippe VII to the present.

See also

• René Rémond
• Bonapartism
• Orleanism
• Ultra-royalists
• Bourbon Restoration
• France in the nineteenth century
• Line of succession to the French throne (Legitimist-Anjou)
• Line of succession to the French throne (Legitimist-Orléanist)